Tips On How To Have A Year Round Vegetable Garden

A year round vegetable garden: what a novel idea! Vegetable gardens have served people even before the ancient Greeks or Romans. In fact, vegetable gardening was popular long before more carnivorous endeavors ever were. Nonetheless, the answer's probably a little obvious, but homemade vegetable gardens have plenty of perks over the traditionally commercial kind.

For example, a veggie garden can either supplement yours and your family's regimen or fulfill it. It depends on a few factors: like the size of the plot you're able to produce plus maintain, the climate in your particular time zone, and the quality of the soil in your backyard (or, wherever you choose to put it). Additionally, year round warmer regions that usually produce moderate rain will yield a longer growing season than others.

There are only a few items you'll need to get started with a year round vegetable garden. In addition to sustainable Earth (good, "crumbly" dirt that's not too moist nor is it too dry), you'll need to make sure your veggie garden is placed somewhere that'll get the sun's maximum benefit-as a rule of thumb, about 5-6 hours a day, which is around the length of time when the sun is emitting the most energy). If this proves to be more difficult than not, that's when your creative genius has to kick in-as homes and their properties usually differ substantially.

Make sure that you've got these [usually] household items and supplies:

- Naturally, some seeds for a few different crops (not too many initially, though)
- A good, wholesome fertilizer
- A small shovel or even hand shovel (both will be beneficial unless it's a very small garden)
- A rake
- Steady supply of fresh water (the hose or a watering bucket will do fine)
- Markers for the individual types of seeds
- Poles if applicable (such as for pole beans)

A vegetable garden needs the right attention on a steady basis

Make sure not only to mark off your year round vegetable garden plot where it gets good sunlight and has sustainable soil, but also ensure there's reasonable protection against the elements as well as insects/general critters. There should be a good series of little canals to help drain water, also. Furthermore, make sure that your vegetable plants get watered around once or twice a week. When it comes to daily maintenance, seed manufacturers' packet labels are typically the best place to find info for specific plants. Any good seed packet will explain items such as: the best climate/season for the particular crop, how much water and food they require, and what time of the year is optimum to begin planting it.

Common crops and their preferred climates

Veggies like potatoes, eggplants, beans, and stalk corn usually thrive in the warmest climates-relatively speaking. So these are essentially a summer crop. Summer crops normally dictate a seasonal temp of 70 through about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. If they come across frost these crops will die.

Crops that do well in cooler climates in a year round vegetable garden include: green beans, brussels sprouts, leeks, cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli greens, onions, and turnips yields best and longest in slightly cooler climates. 50 to a maximum of 78 degrees is ideal for these, and they're a little more resilient to frost.

There is, of course, dozens of other varieties of crops. As you gain experience with your vegetable garden, you'll even discover that you can grow many different crops simultaneously. In future editions, we'll look at both garden planning and types of crops a little more in-depth.